It would be an argument, though, as so much of the tone is low tide with not a lot of desperation and absolutely no danger. It’s all good guys and no bad guys, which is not how most rock docs work. I have no problem with The Broken Social Scene being a bunch of nice guys. It just doesn’t make for firm engagement except for those already nostalgic about the subject. It’s All Gonna Break comes perilously close to being fan-only entertainment.
The music for its own sake is honorable, the surprise success that happened despite indie expectations is deserved, and the eventual dissolution is reasonable. None of those descriptive words is exciting for a reason. No one goes off the rails on bad s**t, no one speaks about their dreams destroyed by the big s**t machine of the major labels, no one on tour has to sleep in s**t with rats crawling on them. It’s all too clean with not enough s**t, just nice guys.
“It’s all good guys and no bad guys, which is not how most rock docs work.”
Also, the real reason for the demise of the band is only briefly talked about once: there were too many people onstage. When you have more than ten people on stage, all playing different instruments, the music just turns into soup. Plus, you will never make any money because of how many people you need to split the take with. Yeah, it’s cool that Feist was a member for awhile, but she is just one name on a very long list of ex-members of The Broken Social Scene.
There are more than enough names on the list to make up an audience for this movie, as well as the people who grew up with this band. It’s All Gonna Break is a labor of love that simply doesn’t know how to share the devotion with the uninitiated. But hey, maybe you used to play trumpet for them, so give it a try.
"…comes perilously close to being fan only entertainment."
